Toradora: Altered Destinies
by shanejayell
Summary: What happens when the Palmtop Tiger meets a Dragon named Ryoko?
1. Taiga

Disclaimer: I own none of the characters from the anime or manga Toradora, I'm just borrowing them for awhile. Like my other 'Altered Destinies' stories I am genderflipping the lead character and making everyone lesbians. If that sorta thing is not what you're into, I suggest hitting the back button.

Toradora: Altered Destinies

Taiga Aisaka would freely admit that the collision was partially her fault for not looking where she was going. She had been going into the classroom, the other girl going out, and she ran right into the taller girl's cushion-like boobs. "Jeeze!" she growled as she reared back a bit, "Don't you have any manners? When you bump into someone, you're supposed to apologize!"

Ryoko Takasu, however, sealed her fate when the black haired girl looked down at her in confusion and murmured "Palmtop tiger...?"

"What?" Taiga said dangerously. Moving swiftly she demanded, "Who are you calling palmtop tiger?" She threw a punch without thinking, swinging up at the girl with what was usually a unstoppable punch.

Yet shockingly, Ryoko caught the punch in her hand, grunting from the impact. "Settle down," she started, her usual gangster glare softened a bit in surprise.

Taiga was similarly surprised. With her rep people usually either got out of the way or took the punch and ran. It was kind of impressive, really. Still, she couldn't let this pass. Swiftly she kicked out and swept the girl's legs out from under her, sending her crashing to the ground.

"Watch your manners," Taiga ordered as she strode past her.

Still, Taiga found herself rather... intrigued by the other girl. She apparently knew the guy Taiga was crushing on, and she had a worse reputation than Taiga. Well, okay, not WORSE, but at least pretty much the same. It seemed Ryoko had inherited the deadly glare she had, and wasn't intentionally doing it. Seemed she was a nice girl, really.

Taiga found all this out talking to Minori, her best friend and a generally cheerful ball of sunshine. "But you think everyone is nice," Taiga noted teasingly.

"Well, yeah," Minori agreed willingly enough, the redhead smiling as she added, "but she really is that nice."

"Huh," Taiga mused, looking over to where Ryoko was talking to her crush, Kitamura. She sighed dreamily, he was so CUTE in his glasses and starched boy's uniform. Not like Ryoko, who looked messy even in a girl's uniform, her long hair swinging down to her ass.

Things went straight into the pot after class, of course. Taiga was attempting to slip a love letter into Kitamura's bag when Ryoko came in after finishing classroom chores. Worse, Taiga realized that she'd put the note in Ryouko's bag by accident. And worst of all, Ryoko refused to give her the bag for the five seconds it would take to remove the damn note!

Taiga went home and stewed about it in her messy apartment as she tried to decide what to do. (Well, after going to the school office and getting Ryoko's address. Just in case.) Her seeing the note was bad enough, and if she told their classmates about it? Disaster! After some thought Taiga came to one conclusion: homicide.

Breaking into Ryoko's apartment in the rundown house was damn easy. And it was just crazy that it was DIRECTLY ACROSS FROM HER ROOM in the apartment building. What, were they living in a anime comedy or something? Anyway, she snuck in with her wooden sword around two in the morning, crept up to Ryoko's bed and swung...

And Ryoko actually managed a barehanded blade block! Right out of the movies. The young woman caught the blade between her palms, even as she looked up at Taiga in confusion. Taiga would have been impressed if she wasn't so pissed off.

"Daaa!" Ryoko yelped, struggling to keep the blade from descending.

Involuntarily Taiga sneezed, stumbling backwards getting tangled up in the sheets and falling on her ass. Ryoko flipped the light switch on as Taiga fumbled for something to stop her runny nose. Ryoko blathered on about something as Taiga stood, regaining her balance.

"I'll give it back," Ryoko said, "I haven't opened it, I swear!"

"Not enough," Taiga growled out, "just giving it back is not enough... you know it exists, therefore die!"

They ended up chasing each other around the room, with her either trying to concuss the other girl into forgetting about the love letter or killing her, whichever was easier. Ryoko dodged around like some kind of cat, her annoyingly large breasts bouncing in the t-shirt and shorts she slept in, Taiga finally had her pinned, ready to deliver the killing blow, when Ryoko stopped her again.

"It's not as bad as you think!" Ryoko yelled. "The envelope was EMPTY!"

Taiga froze, blinking as her brain reviewed the whole day. YES, she didn't remember sticking the letter in the envelope! Writing the note, yes, addressing the envelope, yes. But putting them together? No. Ryoko dug through her bag and passed over the still sealed envelope, indeed without any note inside.

A mixture of relief, tiredness and severe hunger hit Taiga at the same time. She swayed in place, her eyelids drooping suddenly, then almost bonelessly let herself collapse to the floor as Ryoko watched with alarm.

It was the beginning of a beautiful friendship...

To be continued...

Notes: A experiment in writing Taiga's POV. Not entirely sure it works. Was originally half a longer chapter, but the next bit is giving me fits. Will be up soon though.


	2. Ryoko

Toradora: Altered Destinies

Two

Ryoko Takasu was mostly happy with her life, really. She had a loving mother, a nice house, and lived comfortably. Her only problem was her looks. She had inherited a great body from her mom, her hair was long and shimmery, and her face was reasonably attractive. But her eyes... they were her greatest problem.

No matter how she tried to disguise them, her eyes seemed to scare people. Ryoko had tried long bangs, only to be mistaken for a ghost, had worn sunglasses and was mistaken for a yakuza. It seemed she was doomed to misunderstandings because of the eyes she had inherited from her father.

On the plus side, her defeat by Taiga had actually improved her social standing a bit. Apparently discovering she could get her ass kicked by the tiny terror had actually made people realize she was a normal girl. Well, relatively normal at least.

"Oh, stop whining," Taiga noted, the smaller girl sitting at the table sharing breakfast with the family.

"Gee, thanks for the sympathy," Ryoko said dryly as she carried the plates of rice to the table, her long hair swishing around her.

"Good morning," her mother Yasuko yawned as she stumbled into the room, the lovely blond dressed in a filmy nightie.

"Morning," Taiga smiled warmly, a much softer expression than she normally showed.

"Hi hi," Yasuko messed her hair up with a tender rub. "Can you make me one of your nummy omelettes?" she asked Ryoko endearingly.

"Sure," Ryoko smiled.

"And remember to write my name on it in ketchup!" Yasuko added excitedly.

Taiga laughed quietly, sitting at the table eating her rice. She had really warmed up to Tasuko, and Ryoko's mother had warmed up to her. Occassionally Ryoko thought about what kind of messed up homelife Taiga came from, considering her family was letting her live in a apartment on her own. It was hard not to get angry at them, but she knew Taiga wouldn't want her sympathy.

"Here you go," Ryoko said as she brought the eggs over, then took a ketchup bottle and wrote names on two of them.

"You'll make a good housewife some day," Taiga noted as she ate her's with obvious pleasure.

"And you won't," Ryoko shot back dryly as she sat down. She remembered the disaster area in Taiga's apartment before she came along and shuddered.

"No fighting you two," Yasuko chided as she ate. Thoughtfully she added, "It's nice having you eat breakfast with us, Taiga. It feels very homey."

Taiga went beet red, and Ryoko had to work hard not to laugh. The girl could be incredibly bold, yet also incredibly shy at times. It was really cute.

"Thank you," Taiga managed.

Ryoko finished her mouthful of food and washed it down with some water. "Which brings me to something my mom wants to ask you, but she can't get up the courage."

"Oh?" Taiga looked at Ryoko curiously.

"Why not move in with us?" Ryoko asked calmly.

Taiga's mouth dropped open in surprise, a event rare enough that Ryoko wished she had a camera to capture it. But she recovered pretty fast, "You can't be serious."

"Why not?" Ryoko asked with a shrug of her shoulders, "You're not happy living over at that big place alone, right? And mom wouldn't charge you much rent."

"If any," Yasuko added.

Ryoko munched on some rice as she added, "She's chipping in to the food bill at least."

Tasuko nodded reluctantly, "Point."

Taiga looked between them, frowning slightly. "My father would never go for it," she said to them flatly.

"Your father's a ass," Ryoko said shrugging. "And if he tries to make trouble we can just talk about how he's treated you. He's not stupid."

Taiga grunted softly.

It was times like this that Ryoko was glad her father had just walked out on Mom. If he had still been around, how messed up would she have turned out? Certainly Taiga's father hadn't helped her much. A manipulative bastard who waltzed into and out of his daughter's life on a whim, seemingly not caring how she was? Ryoko and Taiga were better off without them.

"Please, Taiga?" Tasuko smiled at the younger girl warmly.

Taiga smiled back, then nodded. "All right," she gave in, "I spend more time here than at home anyway." She looked at Ryoko, "You do realize there'll be trouble, right?"

"If so we can handle it," Ryoko smiled as she finished her food. She looked at the time and cursed softly, "Crap, we're cutting it close."

"Right," Taiga scarfed down her food, then both girls got to their feet. "See you later!" she called to Tasuko.

"See you," Tasuko yawned, intending to go back to bed once the kids were gone.

"Lock up before you go to bed," Ryoko ordered as both of them hurried out. She and Taiga hurried down the stairs and were off as she asked, "Do you still want me to help you hook up with Kitamura?"

"Of course," Taiga grinned, "and I'll help you with Minori too."

To be continued...?

Notes: Some points of divergence include that Taiga told Ryoko about her dad sooner, or Ryoko figured it out on her own. Ryoko is a bit more badass than canon Ryuuji, and ran with girl-gangs when she was younger. Might follow up on that later.


End file.
